Donald Trump Encourages Police Brutality in Speech to Law Enforcement Officers
Officers in Crowd Laugh
Cops Are Pushing Back Against Trump’s Endorsement of Police Brutality

In a speech to law enforcement, Donald Trump promoted police brutality.

During his remarks in Brentwood, New York, a town that’s seen 17 MS-13 related murders in the last 18 months, Trump urged officers not to be gentle when handling suspects.

“When you see these towns and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, and I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice,’ Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over, like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody, don’t hit their head, I said, ‘You can take the hand away, OK?’

(Trump wasn’t even the first to make the observation about cops protecting suspects’ heads—as Slate points out, it’s strikingly similar to an old Seinfeld bit. )

Though the comments played terrifyingly well with officers in the crowd, many of whom laughed and clapped, the local police department later tacitly disavowed Trump’s remarks via Twitter.

About the author /

Author Toure Muhammad is the head bean, publisher and chief strategist of Bean Soup Times. The Morehouse graduate has written front page cover stories for The Final Call and N’digo. He has been featured in the Chicago Reader, Upscale magazine, rolling out newspaper, and N’Digo magapaper. He’s been featured on Tavis Smiley’s radio show on NPR, on Chicago’s WBEZ (Chicago public radio), and many other radio shows.